mysa-admin – Class Noteshttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education
Get behind the most interesting education stories, research and trends with the Express-News education reporters.Mon, 16 Nov 2015 19:25:40 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1Edgewood board leadership shiftshttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/12/edgewood-board-leadership-shifts/
http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/12/edgewood-board-leadership-shifts/#commentsWed, 17 Dec 2008 21:09:44 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/12/edgewood-board-leadership-shifts/Leadership shifted on the Edgewood Independent School District Board of Trustees on Tuesday night, when the board majority became the board minority.

Estefana Martinez became the board president for the first time in her more than 10 years as a trustee. Newly elected trustees Marcelo Montemayor and Tina Morales were voted as the vice president and secretary, respectively.

Giving those three the board majority is Johnny Perez, who won re-election in November. Perez ran with Morales on a slate that Martinez supported.

However, the new leaders didn’t win those spots without a challenge. In each case, it was a 4-3 vote, with trustees Marisol Faz Martinez, Mary Lou Mendoza and George Garnica voting against them. Their own efforts to secure the leadership positions failed.

Faz Martinez, Mendoza and Garnica were a part of former board President Ramiro Nava’s majority. But Nava was outsed in November by Tina Morales. In fact, the only person on Nava’s four-member slate to win a seat on the board was Faz Martinez.

Estefana Martinez said that power may have shifted, but she is hoping the two sides can reach common ground.

” I’m still hoping that the other side — Marisol and Mary Lou and George — see this as an opportunity to start over,” she said. “I have done that for 11 years, and I have adjusted to the new people coming in.”

]]>http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/12/edgewood-board-leadership-shifts/feed/3Non-profit starts college funds for kids of injured vetshttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/12/non-profit-starts-college-funds-for-kids-of-injured-vets/
Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:54:19 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/12/non-profit-starts-college-funds-for-kids-of-injured-vets/After a roadside bomb blew Maj. Ed Pulido’s leg off in Iraq, he spent about six months at Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio recovering and learning how to walk again.

Rated at 90 percent disability by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Pulido was lucky he already had a college education and could earn a living in Oklahoma City using his mind rather than his legs. But without a 100 percent disability rating, the Army did not extend educational benefits to his wife and young daughters.

That’s when Folds of Honor, a non-profit organization, stepped in and started a college fund for his two daughters, ages three and seven. Inspired, Pulido went to work for Folds of Honor and is now trying to return the favor to other soldiers recovering from combat injuries here in San Antonio.

With $1 million to give away, Pulido is trying to drum up awareness and applications for the money, which is meant to help the families of critically injured or deceased soldiers. The new GI Bill, which starts this fall, will cover most educational costs for soldiers. But the benefits don’t transfer to spouses or children unless the solider has 10 years on active duty, or is rated at 100 percent disability.

Like Pulido, many soldiers don’t have that much time under their belts, but came back from Iraq and Afghanistan with serious brain injuries or missing limbs.

“Sometimes I feel that our National Guard and Reserve soldiers do not get the full benefits that they should,” Pulido said. “We want to provide a safety net for those spouses and children.”

Folds of Honor is looking to give out 250 scholarships this year of anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000. No child is too young to start a scholarship fund, Pulido said. Folds of Honor will put $1,000 into an account for the child at birth and keep adding to the account every year until the child is ready to attend college.

Eligible soldiers must have been injured in combat or killed in the line of duty. Visit Folds of Honor for more information on applications. Interested donors should visit Patriot Golf Day, the organization’s chief fundraising event.

&#151Melissa Ludwig

]]>U.S. science scores stagnanthttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/12/u-s-science-scores-stagnant/
Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:53:16 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/12/u-s-science-scores-stagnant/The nation’s students are testing better than before in mathematics but showing little improvement in science scores, according to an international study released today.

The 2007 scores show U.S. fourth and eighth-graders outperforming many of their peers in other countries on the math tests.

While U.S. students also performed comparatively well on the science tests, their scores have been stagnant for the past decade.

— Lindsay Kastner

]]>Survey on youth ethicshttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/12/survey-on-youth-ethics/
Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:28:47 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/12/survey-on-youth-ethics/A press release I received this morning sums up a recent study of the ethics of American youth this way: “There’s a hole in our moral ozone and it’s getting bigger.” In today’s paper, we published a story about the 2008 Report Card on the Ethics of American Youth conducted by the Josephson Institute, based in Los Angeles. The report reflects the attitudes and conduct of 29,760 high school students, and it found that 30 percent of them &#151 up from 28 percent in 2006 &#151 had stolen from a store within the past year. The survey also covered lying and cheating. You can read the report on the Josephson Institute of Ethics’ Web site. The institute is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that administers CHARACTER COUNTS!, a widely used character education program, according to the press release.

The Associated Press story we published said educators who reacted to the findings questioned suggestions that today’s young people are less honest than previous generations. What do you think?

&#151 Michelle De La Rosa

]]>Robert Scott to sit on Obama’s transitional task forcehttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/robert-scott-to-sit-on-obamas-transitional-task-force/
Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:22:25 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/robert-scott-to-sit-on-obamas-transitional-task-force/Texas Commissioner of Education Robert Scott will join education chiefs from nine other states to form a presidential transition task force.

The 10-member group will develop recommendations to be implemented during the first 100 days of the Obama administration, according to a press release from the Texas Education Agency.

“As a former congressional aide and as a state education chief, I look forward to developing education policy proposals that will strengthen and improve the nation’s public schools,” Scott said. “I’m very pleased that Texas has a seat at the table.”

— Eva Ruth Moravec

]]>SA ranks high for charter school studentshttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/sa-ranks-high-for-charter-school-students/
Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:29:08 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/sa-ranks-high-for-charter-school-students/Last week, the Texas State Board of Education approved two new charters for schools to open here next fall.

Center City – Health Careers, for students interested in medicine in grades six through 12 on the South, East and West sides of town; and the Henry Ford Academy: San Antonio, a high school for students inside Loop 410 with an emphasis on the arts, both received the go-ahead.

According to a National Alliance for Public Charter Schools report, San Antonio is ranked seventh in the country based on its market share of public school students enrolled in charter schools.

Based on the report, there were 13,015 students in San Antonio’s charter schools during the 2007-08 school year. Next year, we will have 28 charter operators, 13 percent of the state’s total of 215; and 51 charter schools. The two new schools will add capacity for about 2,000 more students.

]]>UTSA prof tops on popular rating sitehttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/utsa-prof-tops-on-popular-rating-site/
Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:36:27 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/utsa-prof-tops-on-popular-rating-site/Joseph Rogers, a religious studies professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, has been named one of the top ten most highly rated professors on RateMyProfessors.com, a Web site where students write feedback and rate professors on a scale of one to five.

Rogers, who has taught at UTSA for four years, placed 6th out of more than 1 million professors from across the country, and was the only professor from Texas to make the top ten. On the site, students have left nine pages of comments praising Rogers’ engaging lectures, crystal clear expectations and ability to make them think about the world in different ways. Many even claimed to feel sad if they missed a class.

Though the site is often criticized as a popularity contest rather than an objective standard of teaching, it can give students a good idea of what to expect from a professor, Rogers said.

“It’s quite an honor actually,” Rogers said of the ranking. “I am glad as a professor that students are getting something out of my class. Every semester students fail, so it is not an A factory. Part of the secret is just being passionate about what you teach, even if it is toaster repair.”

Unfortunately, Rogers said, he did not make the site’s most prestigious ranking.

“I am just bummed out I didn’t make the hottest professor of the year,” Rogers joked. “That’s what I was really hoping for.”

&#151Melissa Ludwig

]]>Americans bomb test on civic literacyhttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/americans-bomb-test-on-civic-literacy/
Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:28:49 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/americans-bomb-test-on-civic-literacy/It probably won’t surprise you to learn that twice as many Americans know Paula Abdul was a judge on American Idol than know “government of the people, by the people and for the people” is a key phrase from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address.

But the Washington, D.C.-based Intercollegiate Studies Institute is only too happy to remind us of America’s civic ignorance in “Our Fading Heritage,” a study released Thursday.

For the study, about 2,500 randomly selected Americans took a 33-question civics test, scoring an average of 49 percent. Elected officials scored even lower than the general public with an average of 44 percent.

Here are some highlights:

Less than half of all Americans could name the three branches of government

30 percent of elected officials do not know that “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” are the inalienable rights referred to in the Declaration of Independence, and 20 percent falsely believe that the Electoral College “was established to supervise the first presidential debates.”

Almost 40 percent of all respondents falsely believe the president has the power to declare war

40 percent of those with a bachelor’s degree do not know business profit equals revenue minus expenses

Only 54 percent with a bachelor’s degree correctly define free enterprise as a system in which individuals create, exchange and control goods and resources

20.7 percent of Americans falsely believe that the Federal Reserve can increase or decrease government spending.

Richard Brake, the institute’s director of university stewardship, said the results don’t bode well for a representative democracy.

“People may be listening to television experts talk about economic bailouts and the platforms of political candidates, but they apparently have little idea what our basic economic and political institutions are,” Brake said.

The study also called into question how much colleges and universities are teaching young adults about civic literacy, since respondents with bachelor’s degrees did only slightly better than those with high school diplomas.

Particularly appalling were the scores of elected officials, said Josiah Bunting, III, chairman of ISI’s national civic literacy board.

“How can political leaders make informed decisions if they don’t understand the American experience?” Bunting said. “Colleges can, and should, play an important role in curing this national epidemic of ignorance.”

It’s all here in the state’s newly updated Academic Excellence Indicator System reports.

The reports cover a variety of data for Texas schools and districts, including test results for the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams.

The newest data is for the 2007-2008 school year.

— Lindsay Kastner

]]>SAISD on track to make cafeteria cutshttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/saisd-on-track-to-make-cafeteria-cuts/
Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:01:22 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/saisd-on-track-to-make-cafeteria-cuts/The ailing economy is hitting school districts all over the nation, but, locally, it seems to be affecting the San Antonio Independent School District most. Today, we had a front-page story about changes the approximately 53,000-student district is on track to make in January.

Its cafeteria program has been operating in the red for at least the past five years, taking about $7.7 million out of savings to make ends meet. The problem? The biggest factor is declining enrollment. Student enrollment in this inner-city district has been on the decline for years, but school officials, for the most part, kept operating the same number of schools &#151 and the same number of cafeterias. There have been some school closures and consolidations over the years, but not commensurate with the number of students the district has lost. Once Bexar County’s largest school district, SAISD saw enrollment peak in 1969 at nearly 76,000 students and it began to fall over the next few decades.

(Helen L. Montoya, Express-News)

Kindergarten students at Graebner Elementary School go through the lunch line on Tuesday.

Trustees and administrators have been vocal over the past year about that fact that more school closures — the district closed six schools last year, but opened three this year&#151 are inevitable, and a long-term facilities planning committee is currently developing recommendations that will almost certainly include proposed closures.

Enrollment aside, SAISD also is feeling the impact of inflation. Steven Bassett, the district’s chief financial officer, estimates food costs will rise $1 million this year. That’s a reality that all districts, whether small or large, urban or rural, are facing. And they’re scouring the budget for savings.

A search of news reports from across the country show that districts are making change such as replacing muffins with less expensive graham crackers, replacing healthier romaine lettuce with iceberg lettuce, and, in cases where the food has a shelf-life, offering the previous day’s menu as an option.

In SAISD’s case, the district is taking what Bassett told trustees at a board meeting Monday night are radical measures, such reducing entré = ée options at elementary and middle schools. Cafeteria managers who attended the board meeting say administrators need to look at the small problems that add up to big dollars over time. For instance, one manager said, the district buys cornbread mix in bulk, but district menus rarely include cornbread, so the mix goes bad.

Rachel Martinez, who is an executive vice president for the San Antonio Alliance and represents the cafeteria managers, said “These are the little areas that they’re overlooking.”

A few dozen cafeteria managers showed up to the Monday night meeting and were relieved when board President James Howard quashed the rumor that the district was going to hire an outside company to run the food services program.

&#151 Michelle De La Rosa

News researcher Kevin Frazzini contributed to this blog

]]>Harlandale grant an opportunity gained, not losthttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/harlandale-grant-an-opportunity-gained-not-lost/
Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:48:53 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/harlandale-grant-an-opportunity-gained-not-lost/I wrote a story earlier this week about a $400,000 grant that the AT&T Foundation awarded to the Harlandale Independent School District to help bolster its dropout prevention and college-prep programs.

Nationally, the dropout problem seems to have everyone’s eye, from educators to policymakers to business leaders. The Express-News education team has chosen to highlight the problem locally throughout the school year by reporting on various aspects of the issue, including the solutions educators and others are implementing. We’re calling the series of stories “Lost Opportunity,” a title we feel represents the consequences of dropping out.

The series logo accompanied the Harlandale grant story, except that it ran without an editor’s note explaining the project and its purpose. The logo, out of context, raised questions among Harlandale administrators: How can something as positive as a $400,000 grant be considered a lost opportunity? It’s a valid question.

Our intention was not to cast negative light on what school officials embraced as a major boost to their efforts &#151 Harlandale was chosen from a pool of some 1,800 applicants nationwide for the grant. That the editor’s note did not run was an oversight, and one we hope to not repeat as we continue to write stories about an issue that local leaders say is crucial to San Antonio’s economic health.

&#151 Michelle De La Rosa

]]>Where should the Obama girls go to school?http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/where-should-the-obama-girls-go-to-school/
Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:13:24 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/where-should-the-obama-girls-go-to-school/While most of the blogosphere is still tossing around suggestions for the new Obama family puppy, those in the education world are using the Internet for something else.

On its Web site, the Democrats for Education Reform posted a petition that encourages the president-elect and his wife to consider public charter schools for their daughters’ new stomping grounds. The letter also asks Barack Obama to remember that families “should be able to make these kids of crucial, life-changing decisions on behalf of their children,” advocating for parents to have school choice.

During the presidential campaign, Obama gave a shout-out to Michelle Rhee, chancellor of public schools in Washington, D.C.

“The D.C. school system is in terrible shape, and it has been for a very long time. And we’ve got a wonderful new superintendent there who’s working very hard with the young mayor,” he said.

So what do you think? If Obama sends his girls to private schools, will he be contradicting the “common man” ideals he depended on to win the election? If they enroll in the D.C. public school system, will he be compromising his daughters’ educations just to do the right thing politically? Should we even care where the president’s children go to school?

– Eva Ruth Moravec

]]>Science faculty: No “weaknesses” in evolutionhttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/science-faculty-no-weaknesses-in-evolution/
http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/science-faculty-no-weaknesses-in-evolution/#commentsMon, 17 Nov 2008 21:49:47 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/science-faculty-no-weaknesses-in-evolution/A new survey of science faculty at Texas universities showed that 94 percent reject the idea that there are weaknesses in the theory of evolution, an argument used by proponents of creationism and intelligent design to persuade teachers to “teach the controversy” over evolution.

The survey was paid for the Texas Freedom Network, an Austin-based non-profit that works to keep religion out of public school science curriculum.

By law, teachers must teach students about evolution, the scientific theory that life forms evolve over time through natural selection of traits that aid in survival. Biblical accounts of human origins, as well as intelligent design — the theory that some supernatural force created life on Earth– are considered religion, and are not part of science curriculum in public schools.

However, creationists say there is serious controversy about evolution among the scientific community, and that teachers ought to point out weaknesses in Darwin’s theory.

The TFN survey, however, indicates little controversy among scientists at Texas universities.

Raymond Eve, a sociologist at the University of Texas at Arlington sent the survey to 1,019 biologists and biological anthropologists at all 35 public universities and the 15 largest private colleges in the state. About 45 percent responded.

Here are the results:

97.7 percent rejected intelligent design as valid science

95 percent want only evolution taught in science classrooms

94 percent said the weaknesses in evolutionary theory are not valid scientific objections

79.6 percent believe emphasizing “weaknesses” of evolution would harm students’ college readiness and 72 percent said it would harm their ability to compete for 21st century jobs

91 percent believe support for evolution is compatible with religious faith.

&#151Melissa Ludwig

]]>http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/science-faculty-no-weaknesses-in-evolution/feed/7Edgewood board splithttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/edgewood-board-split/
Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:47:04 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/edgewood-board-split/Here’s a story that ran in yesterday’s Metro section about the lack of a majority on the Edgewood Independent School District board. Edgewood has a long history of candidates teaming up to campaign, pitting one slate against another. It’s an uncommon approach in school elections, and, this time around, it didn’t have the desired affect. None of the three teams &#151 two slates of four candidates, as well as a third team of two candidates &#151 prevailed at the polls.

I went to the Memorial vs. Kennedy football game last Friday, and parents I talked to seemed to want the same thing. They said they want trustees to put their differences aside and work together to improve the West Side district.

So, I’m curious what other Edgewood residents would like to see this board accomplish. If you were in charge, what programs or issues would you focus on?

]]>Southside school board honors late presidenthttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/southside-school-board-honors-late-president/
Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:27:36 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/southside-school-board-honors-late-president/The family of Antonio “Tony” Uriegas, former Southside ISD school board president, is expected at this week’s board meeting when Uriegas is awarded the title, “A Champion in Education.”

The school board will make a donation to Southside’s ROTC chapter in honor of Uriegas, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Korean War and earned two Purple Hearts.

Uriegas sat on the district’s school board for many years, and was a Democratic precinct chairman for more than 20 years.

“He would always come to school board meetings, and he served for many years,” said Southside spokesman Jorge Topete. “We want to honor his memory and his family.”

]]>Veterans Day Surprisehttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/veterans-day-surprise/
Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:05:43 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/veterans-day-surprise/Will Velazquez, a veteran and student at University of the Incarnate Word, has worked hard to get a chapter of the national Student Veterans of America up and running on his campus. On Tuesday, Velasquez learned they would get a $100,000 boost from the Wal-Mart Foundation, only one of 10 colleges in the nation selected to receive the grant.

“That’s awesome. I don’t know whether I should cry or get a beer,” said Velazquez, who found out about the gift at a Veterans Day ceremony he helped organize.

Velazquez has been trying to convince UIW to create an education center for veterans, a dream that could become a reality with an influx of cash from Wal-Mart.

In total, the Wal-Mart Foundation gave $3.6 million to 12 organizations to support veterans educational programs; that includes $2.5 million to the American Council on Education for veteran educational assistance programs in 20 colleges, a $100,000 grant to Student Veterans of America, and individual $100,000 grants to 10 colleges and universities to build programs that help vets complete their degrees.

UIW was the only private university in the nation selected for the grant.

“The men and women who serve our country are our nation’s heroes,” said Margaret McKenna, president of the Wal-Mart Foundation. “Wal-Mart is proud to support programs that help our veterans get the resources they need to succeed in their education and their transition back to civilian life.”

grade-fixing for Kennedy High School football players aren’t true. Neither is an anonymous claim, made by the same source, that athletes who were ineligible because of grades participated in games.

“After reviewing and conducting a thorough investigation, I concluded that no UIL eligibility rule was violated,” writes Jerry Gonzalez, the district’s athletic and physical education director. “I found that Kennedy High School did not violate any UIL policy or Edgewood ISD policy.”

Click “more” to read the full text of the letter.

Below is the text of the letter that Gonzalez addressed to Ed Stidham, UIL compliance directo,r and John Montelongo III, District 28-4A chairman

Dear Mr. Stidham and Mr. Montelongo,

On late Tuesday, November 4, 2008, Mr. Stidham informed me that there was a letter that he had received concerning an allegation pertaining to Kennedy High School. He also told me that I should have received a copy from the anonymous writer as well. I informed Mr. Stidham that I had not received the letter but I would obtain a copy of this letter from Ms. Lopez, and then we would address and investigate the allegation at that time. I met with Ms. Lopez; she told me that she also had not received this letter. I then asked Mr. Stidham to fax the letter to my office. The letter alleged that football players from Kennedy High School played while ineligible after the six weeks grade check. The allegation also stated that numerous grades were changed after the six weeks grade check allowing the football players to play against Lanier and Burbank High Schools.

I immediately informed Dr. Garza, Superintendent and Mr. Kelly, Executive Director. I then conferred with Ms. Lopez and developed an investigation plan. We interviewed Mr. Richard Cerda, Athletic Coordinator and Football Coach at Kennedy High School. Coach Cerda assured us that there were no ineligible players playing after the six weeks grade check. Being that it was getting late, after school, Ms. Lopez and I decided to continue the investigation that very next day. Mr. Gil Garza, Athletic Director, SAISD, called me later to inquire about what had happened and what I was going to do. I informed him that Ms. Lopez and I were going to continue the investigation early the next day. He asked me to just keep him abreast with my investigation findings.

On Wednesday, November 5, 2008, I called Mr. Stidham and informed him that Ms. Lopez and I were going to continue our investigation and would report our findings to him and Mr. Montelongo, District Chairman. At that time, I proceeded with the investigation. I requested the six week grade check failure report and screened each football player’s name. I found that two football players that were taking a Pre-Calculus class and had received grades of 65 and 69. Pre-Calculus is defined by TEA as an Honors Class and is exempt from the “No Pass, No Play” requirements. Pre-Calculus is also defined in the Edgewood ISD Course Catalog as an Advanced course and must achieve a minimum grade of 60 on a scale of 100 to be exempt from the “No Pass, No Play” rule &#151 EISD Board Policy on eligibility for extracurricular activities.

I also found one student/football player that had received a grade of 62 and the grade was changed to a 74. I asked Ms. Lopez and Mr. Jason Herrera, Assistant Principal, what was the reason for this change of grade. Mr. Herrera presented documentation that verified the change of grade. Mr. Herrera explained to me that this student’s work was graded by Ms. Ramirez, Spanish teacher, but did not have the student’s name on the work. Mr. Herrera stated that Ms. Ramirez had changed the student’s grade. I then asked to speak to Ms. Ramirez to confirm the process and documentation of the change of grade.

Ms. Ramirez informed me that the student had approached her on Monday, Oct. 6, 2008, and asked why he had a grade of 62. Ms. Ramirez and the student both looked for a folder that is kept in class and noticed that the graded papers matched his writing but had no name on it. Ms. Ramirez then confirmed the student’s work that was already graded before the end of the six week grading period. Ms. Ramirez then requested a change of grade form and submitted it on Oct. 7, 2008. I then asked Ms. Ramirez if anyone had talked to her about changing the grade. She said, “No. There were two other students that asked me to change their own grades but I told them no.”

After reviewing and conducting a thorough investigation, I concluded that no UIL eligibility rule was violated. I found that Kennedy High School did not violate any UIL policy or Edgewood ISD policy. It is Edgewood ISD’s expectation that all teachers and staff adhere to the integrity and eligibility requirements and uphold the mission while performing their duties and responsibilities and meeting their obligations to the District.

Recommendations:

Ms. Lopez shall reinforce the process and procedure of reporting a concern to administration about other faculty members.

Mr. Cerda and I will reinforce the process of any coaching concerns with student eligibility.

If you should have any questions or need other information, please do not hesitate to call me at: 669-3700

Thank you.

Respectfully,

Jerry Gonzalez

Athletic and Physical Ed. Director

Edgewood ISD

]]>http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/kennedy-grade-fixing-allegation-unfounded/feed/3A tax increase, a board shake-up and a promise kepthttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/a-tax-increase-a-board-shake-up-and-a-promise-kept/
Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:57:43 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/a-tax-increase-a-board-shake-up-and-a-promise-kept/Harlandale officials and community members who pushed for the tax increase voters approved Tuesday are happy. Read today’s story here. Stay tuned for more out of the Edgewood Independent School District, where voters handed the district a mixed bag of trustees. In a key race, voters ousted President Ramiro Nava from the board, selecting Tina Morales, a former Edgewood trustee, with 48 percent of the vote.

They also elected incumbents Johnny Perez and Marisol Faz Martinez &#151 who ran on opposing slates &#151 to another term. Finally, they voted in a former Edgewood teacher who brings to the table a long list of workplace concerns he picked up during the few years or so he taught in the district. Click here to read the story that ran Wednesday.

In the South San Antonio Independent School District, Karyn Tomlinson, a plaintiff in the unsuccessful legal battle last year to save West Campus from closure, beat incumbent Andy Diaz with 58 percent of the vote in District 7. Tomlinson made good on a promise made by members of Save West Campus after the closure, and even after they settled the lawsuit with the district. They vowed never to be caught off guard again &#151 the board’s decision to close the school happened within two weeks of a recommendation by administration &#151and said they would get more involved.

Also, Northside’s Marshall High School has its own mock election Web site.

]]>The results are inhttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/the-results-are-in/
Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:17:34 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2008/11/the-results-are-in/The first time I voted for president I was 5-years-old and it was a mock election, but there was no point in telling me my vote didn’t count.

I still remember how excited I was stepping into that cardboard refrigerator box turned voting booth to cast my ballot.

I won’t tell you how I voted — reporters aren’t supposed to do that — but I will share some results from other mock elections.

Lots of school kids have been voting over the past several days, including Northside Independent School District’s Vale Middle School, which divided the campus into precincts and required students to register before they could vote.

Vale’s election was part of a district-wide mock election in which 26 middle and high schools took part. A few schools will vote tomorrow, but results are in for more than 24,000 Northside students.

The Barack Obama/ Joseph Biden ticket won by a landslide 62.3 percent, with the John McCain/ Sarah Palin ticket taking 34.4 percent of the vote. Third party or write-in candidates made up the difference.

O’Connor High School and Jefferson Middle School were the only Northside schools to swing Republican.

The University of Virginia’s Youth Leadership Initiative holds a national student mock election and though the project is not intended to be a used as predictor, the students are pretty darn good — at least when it comes to picking a president.

“We’ve been doing the mock election since 2000 and the kids have never gotten it wrong,” said spokesman Cordel Faulk.

More than three million students around the country voted in the YLI mock before polls closed last week. Obama took 60 percent of that vote.

In Texas, 55.2 percent of YLI voters chose the Obama/Biden ticket and 41.9 voted for McCain/Palin.

The Senate race was closer. There Republican incumbent John Cornyn (45.89) held a razor thin edge over Democratic challenger Rick Noriega (43.95).

In the red state of Virginia, which many pundits say McCain will need to win if he’s going to stack up enough electoral college votes tomorrow, the YLI student voters chose Obama (59.7) by a wide margin. McCain took 35.5 percent of the vote.

If your school or district has tallied the results of its mock election, let us know and we’ll post the results here.